


all the waste you see, that’s what I did

by Tasbine



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 19:08:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3179861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tasbine/pseuds/Tasbine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not once had the neophyte legislacerator been aware of her presence, despite the several decades the Handmaid had kept watch over her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all the waste you see, that’s what I did

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AliveArsenic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliveArsenic/gifts).



The dingy room The Handmaid transported herself to was not very accommodating for any more trolls than just the one hunched over the only desk in the room. She could feel the sopor slime from the recuperacoon beside her sliding up and down against her arm as she repositioned herself. Pieces of parchment covered the floor underneath her so that even the slightest movement from her betrayed her presence there. It was a good thing she wanted his attention, and she certainly wouldn’t have to do anything to gain it; He already knew she was there.

Brekes Ocetii was not a patient troll by any stretch of imagination. It was a testament to the reach of The Signless’s teachings that such a troll could ever become involve with a cult so concerned with peace. He liked to consider himself a lowblood revolutionary of considerably importance, and he was all too willing to use The Signless to gain any ground he could work with. As such, it was him she chose to reveal herself to. 

He startled at her appearance at first, as he was not used to seeing a visage like hers. She could not blame him. By then, The Handmaid was well aware of how her new look could be frightening to others of her kind. Flashing bright colors emitting from her eyes illuminated Ocetii’s face, the wall behind him, and the desk and pieces of parchment strewn across it. 

He reached behind himself for a knife laying on his desk just within his reach, quickly picking it up and flinging it at the intruder.

In an instant, the knife turned out an angle away from the Handmaid and then buried itself into the wall between her and the door. The Handmaid kept her gaze on Ocetii as agitation began to distort her features. 

“I am no enemy,” she said. Her hand struck out towards the knife. With a tight grip on its handle and a sharp turn of her wrist, she pulled it out. As he cowered into his desk, she reached out her empty palm to him.

She said to him, “I know your pain. I know your cause.”

Then, she used the knife to slice a gash across her palm, letting the dark red bleed from her.

She said, “And I know your future. I can help.”

****

Not once had the neophyte legislacerator been aware of her presence, despite the several decades The Handmaid had kept watch over her. 

It was not in The Handmaid’s interest to reveal herself, even if she had ever desired contact between them. By then, she was a familiar figure in Alternian lore. Wherever and whenever she presented herself, it could only be seen as a sign of a troll’s unfortunate and imminent demise. Pyrope undoubtedly would’ve taken it to mean the same, regardless of intentions. 

The Handmaid watched Pyrope’s career blossom. Remarkably so, for someone with such a middling shade in her veins. 

It was to Pyrope’s advantage that the Handmaid could only expect the same misunderstandings from the neophyte’s enemies. Otherwise, The Handmaid knew of an affiliation of Redglare’s that so few trolls were privy to, but many trolls would certainly be glad to learn of.

It was the silver symbol hanging from the necklace around Pyrope’s neck that first drew The Handmaid’s attention to her. 

She had once pulled it out from underneath her top for a troll The Handmaid knew belonged to the forbidden cult. She had held the chain between two of her fingers, letting the symbol of The Signless gently turn and sway in the open. To the other troll, it must’ve surely been a sign of trust and kinship.

From then on, The Handmaid would travel to various points of time and watch Pyrope during her relatively short life.

****

Proving her exceptional foresight to Brekes, and therefore gaining his trust, was simple for The Handmaid. It just required a good amount of patience on her part and a lot of naivety on his. She would tell him how his plans would carry out, and he would watch as the future unfolded just as she had told him. Soon, he began to rely on her as a strange sort of confidante as well as some kind of a prophet. She was, he began to think of her as, his key to victory. 

****

In the forest, there was a spot next to the river flowing through it that would allow Redglare some rest before she continued on in her pursuit of the criminal. She was just about to climb onto her dragon lusus’s back to depart when she finally saw The Handmaid appear within her peripheral vision. She turned slightly to look at her fully. 

“Demoness,” Pyrope greeted The Handmaid, as a frown formed on her face. “Why are you here?”

The Handmaid regarded her, but after a few moments of only silence Redglare came to realize she was not going to answer. So, she continued, “I know what you are and I will never do anything you want me to. Do what you want with me. Torture me. Kill me! But I refuse to play a part in any of your games.”

Her hostility left The Handmaid seemingly unfazed, however. It was then that she realized that, deep in her bones, she really did feel afraid.

After another long stretch of silence, The Handmaid finally spoke. She said, “You will not survive this.”

Pyrope’s blood chilled instantaneously at these words and anything she had left to say to The Demoness was emptied from her mind.

The Handmaid pointed a finger at her and then pointed eastwards. She said, “Go home.”

Pyrope wasn’t going to follow any of The Demoness’s instructions. She slowly started inching her way backwards to the dragon. When The Handmaid didn’t move from her spot, her steps grew bolder. The Handmaid narrowed her eyes but remained still. It did not seem as though she would be an immediate threat to Redglare. She remained silent and still, without any protest or violence, as Redglare made her escape unscathed. 

****

The Handmaid advised Brekes to make his strike at the most inopportune time he could make it. She knew it would only cause a bloody retaliation from the upper echelons of the Alternian Empire, which in turn would cause further revolts from the lowbloods. 

The Signless’s cult would be brutally crushed and The Signless himself would be killed.

The Handmaid knew this would also lead to several other ramifications throughout the timeline. The Signless’s caretaker and first follower would fall into slavery. As a slave, she would eventually then fall into the hands of a notorious pirate. The pirate’s kismesis would be so displeased by this turn of events, he would go to The Grand Highblood himself to sell the pirate out. The Grand Highblood would send a young neophyte to capture the pirate, which the neophyte would do.

Neophyte Redglare would put the pirate on trial.

And the Handmaid knew she would not survive.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from ["Bloody Mary" by April Bernard](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/247694).


End file.
